History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Volume 4

History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Volume 4

Five subjects may be said to form the outline of the chief events detailed in this volume of the History of the Church the Founding of Nauvoo; the Appeal of the Church to the National Government for redress of wrongs suffered in Missouri; the Mission of the Twelve Apostles to the British Isles; the Mission of Orson Hyde to Palestine; and the Doctrinal Development of the Church. Preliminary Considerations. Preliminary to a brief consideration of these several subjects, I desire to say a word as to the reception of the Latter-day Saints by the people of Illinois, and the conditions prevailing in that state at the time of their arrival. A knowledge of these conditions is necessary to the understanding of this whole Illinois period of the History of the Church. Much has been made of the hospitality which the people of Illinois extended to the Latter-day Saints at the time of their expulsion from Missouri. A writer in the American Historical Magazine for July, 1906, says: "To the latter state [Illinois] they [the Saints] went in 1839, and were received with such open-armed hospitality as only a very generous and liberty-loving people can extend to those whom they honestly believe to be suffering from a wrongful oppression. The conduct of the Saints in five years turned this feeling of extraordinarily deep-seated sympathy, inducing great practical charities, into a feeling of very bitter hatred, threatening to break into mob violence." Far be it from me to depreciate the kindness of those who extended a helping hand to the Saints in the hour of their distress. Stripped and sorely wounded they fled from the violence of Missouri militia-mobs, and found for a time a peaceful asylum in Illinois. Many were the acts of disinterested kindness extended to them by the people in the western part of that state; and every such act I am sure was and is remembered, both by those who were the direct recipients of such acts of kindness and by their grateful descendants. But is responding to the calls of humanity so rare a thing in a Christian state, that it must needs be regarded as so exceptional in this case? Such was the condition of the Saints as they fled from Missouri, such the injustice to which they had been subjected in that state, that their situation would have appealed to the generosity of savages, how much more, then, to a civilized and Christian community! And then, speaking of this reception of the Saints en masse, by Illinois, and leaving out of consideration {XX} for the momentsince they have already been acknowledgedthe individual acts of kindness bestowed upon the exiles, was this reception of the Saints by Illinois wholly disinterested? Were there not benefits which the Saints could bestow upon the state in return for the heartiness of the reception given? Would it not have been, under all the circumstances, the gravest of blunders for Illinois to have refused asylum to these exiles? Is it to be presumed that the public men of western Illinois were so blind to their own interests as not to see in these twelve or fifteen thousand people a mighty advantage to the state? It is true they were poor in this world's goods; but they were rich in labor-power, and their reputation for habits of sobriety and of industry had preceded them. Here were thousands of husbandmen seeking lands. Illinois had thousands of acres of unoccupied lands awaiting husbandmen. How shortsighted and unstatesman-like it would have been for the men of Illinois not to have welcomed these settlers into their state? With half an eye it is easy to see that the benefits of this reception of the exiled Mormons by Illinois is not by any means a one-sided affair; and it would be doing an injustice to the intelligence of the people of that state to suppose they were blind to these advantages. This will more fully appear when other conditions are taken into account. Illinois has an area of 56,650 square miles; and at the time of the advent of the Saints in that state a white population of less than four hundred thousand,[1] as against a present population of five and a half millions.[2] It will be seen, then, that in 1839, the year of the advent of the Saints into that state, Illinois was very sparsely settled, and needed above all things for her development and prosperity, people to subdue her wilderness and cultivate her rich lands, especially people desirous of making homes, and becoming permanent citizens. Moreover, Illinois had recently launched an extensive system of internal improvements by state aid. This system included the construction of 1,300 miles of railroads in the state, besides provisions for the improvement of the navigation of the Kaskaskia, Illinois, Great and Little Wabash, and Rock rivers. Also the construction of a canal from Lake Michigan to the navigable waters of the Illinois river, a distance of more than one hundred miles (from Chicago to Peru). To carry out this system of internal improvements the state legislature of 1836-7 had appropriated the sum of $12,000,000; and to raise the money state bonds were placed on the stock markets of the eastern states and in England. It is not my province here even to note the wisdom or unwisdom of this policy of wholesale state aid for these internal improvements; let the wisdom {XXI} or unwisdom be what it may, these conditions emphasized Illinois' demand for population, and again makes it evident that it would have been the height of folly for the people of that state to do other than give hearty welcome to this body of population so rich in labor-power; so potent in wealth producing energy. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60708
Author: Smith, Joseph
Release Date: Nov 16, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Editor: Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry), 1857-1933